Written by PETA
In the wake of the recent release of our undercover investigation exposing cruelty and suffering inside animal labs at the University of Utah, students, local PETA supporters, and members of Salt Lake Animal Advocacy Movement gathered outside the university's Park Building yesterday and urged the swarm of spectators to help put an end to the cruelty committed against the dogs, cats, and other animals confined to the University's labs.
The demonstrators weren't just humans—some adorable companion animals campaigned for the cause too. Together, they collected signatures for a petition to scrap the law that requires government-run shelters to make homeless animals—even those who are friendly, trained, and adoptable—available to universities and private labs for experimentation and testing. How could you not put your name to something these guys are supporting:
Join the effort and urge the University of Utah to stop abusing shelter animals in its labs immediately.
Written by Logan Scherer
Well, I just lost my appetite. And it's thanks to the announcement that a "members-only" restaurant will soon be serving seal meat to politicians and journalists who work on Canada's Parliament Hill.
Back in 2008, some Canadian senators called for seal flesh to be added to the restaurant's menu as a show of support for Canada's annual seal slaughter, but they couldn't locate a supplier, since most seal-hunting firms cash in on fur sales to Russia and China. The restaurant isn't likely to sell out of seal: One of Canada's own senators said that he's heard that it tastes "horrible," and Quebec Liberal MP Marcel Proulex, who pushed for the nauseating menu item, admits that while it's unlikely that suppliers will get rich from its sale, "[a]t least we'll be sending the message that we're not afraid of seal meat."
Canada seems bent on thumbing its nose at compassion. PETA's Dan Mathews notes, "It's a very peculiar, disturbing cruelty unique to Canada, and it's just bizarre when a country like Canada, which is known for so many advanced policies in the social realm, would be so stuck in the Dark Ages about its support of such a hideous cruelty."
With people around the world voicing their disgust and taking action against the seal slaughter, I'm going to guess that Canada will soon be able to file this "show of support" in the record books right alongside the plan to include seal skin in Olympic uniforms. Epic fail!
Written by Karin Bennett
With Yom Kippur just around the corner, we'd like to urge all our Jewish readers to speak out against the killing of chickens for kapporos.
Kapporos is a sacrificial ritual that takes place on the eve of Yom Kippur. This ritual is sometimes performed by swinging a live chicken around the head three times and then slaughtering the terrified, abused bird. In Brooklyn alone, 50,000 chickens are killed every year during kapporos ceremonies.
Rabbi Joseph Karo, who composed the Shulchan Aruch (an important codification of Jewish law), wrote that killing an animal for kapporos is "a foolish custom."
Using money instead of live chickens to perform the kapporos ritual is an acceptable substitute for outdated chicken sacrifices, which all compassionate Jews should condemn.
After all, you can't expect forgiveness and mercy when you have blood on your hands.
Written by Shawna Flavell
After a brief glimmer of hope that the slaughter in Taiji, Japan, would not happen this year, it has belatedly begun. Of the 100 dolphins rounded up so far, half will be released and the other half will be sent to prison aquariums. Fifty pilot whales have been slaughtered.
But there is hope: Worldwide outrage prompted by the recent movie The Cove means that the future of the slaughter is uncertain, according to an anonymous official at the Taiji fisheries association.
There's still work to be done. Please contact your local Japanese embassy and express your disgust over the sale of dolphins to aquariums and the slaughter of pilot whales.
From the folks at Ecorazzi comes the number-one reason for rushing out to see The Cove: It saves dolphins' lives.
The annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan, was supposed to start yesterday, but all's quiet in the cove:
Compare that with last year at this time:
Ric O'Barry, the famous former (and reformed) trainer of TV's Flipper, has been battling Taiji's dolphin slaughter for years. He reports that instead of being filled with dolphin killers, the cove was filled with news reporters, including—for the first time ever—Japanese film crews.
Looks like Japan's dirty secret is no longer a secret.
Written by Alisa Mullins
As a PETA blogger, I know that male chicks in the egg industry are simply discarded and killed—but knowing about it didn't make watching it any easier.
This new footage from an undercover investigation by Mercy for Animals shows workers at an Iowa hatchery killing 150,000 newborn male chicks every single day.
Chicks born at hatcheries are sent off to slaughter the very day they take their first breath. The only lives these babies know is one in which they are sorted and handled like pieces of garbage. Workers grab them by their wings, toss them onto conveyor belts, and throw them down a chute to spend their final moments in a grinding machine—in which they are ground up while they are still alive.
All this is standard procedure, widely accepted at commercial hatcheries and within the bounds of animal welfare laws. The egg industry considers male chicks to be useless because they don't lay eggs and can't be raised profitably for meat. Their sisters are not exactly lucky to remain alive.
For anyone who thinks that eating eggs doesn't kill animals, millions of male chicks each year are born in hatcheries and promptly thrown into the blades of giant garbage disposals.
Egg-free recipes, anyone?
Written by Heather Drennan
Anyone out there know of a gadget that makes rotten retailers stop selling live frogs and snails in tiny prisons? Anyone?
Didn't think so. That's why we're calling on you to drop whatever you're doing right now and tell gadget magnate Brookstone to stop selling Frog-O-Spheres ASAP!
Despite complaint after complaint, Brookstone—a company that apparently has a heart of stone—is continuing to "package" frogs and snails together in pitiful plastic prisons and sell them to customers who don't have a clue about how to take care of these extremely delicate animals.
A distraught Brookstone employee has sent us undercover photos and horrifying details confirming that frogs and snails are sold with little regard for who will care for them:
"Most parents will exclaim right in front of me that they are not going to help the child to care for these living creatures. Then when I offer to sell them the additional food they will tell me flat out that the frogs won't live that long. It kills me that these frogs that can live to be 15 years old [won't] even last 1 year as a pet in a controlled [environment]."
The whistleblower went on to describe how animals are forced to languish and suffer on Brookstone's shelves without any veterinary care:
"We did have a frog that had a growth on its bottom. We eventually transferred that aquarium to the stock room and the frog died. No vet was called …. There is absolutely no policy or [veterinary] contact in my store for sick frogs. … [W]hen they do die we are told to "flush" them. … The snails die even more frequently. We have a bag full of over 15 snails that have died in the last month."
But, hey, no worries—if Kermit dies before his 30-day warranty is up, Brookstone will replace him for free! So long as you have your receipt, just flush and replace.
Let Brookstone know that these frogs aren't just a drop in the bucket. Please take action now!
Written by Amy Elizabeth
If you visited PETA's Web site during the month of November, you probably saw turkey slaughter footage. And no, I don't mean Sarah Palin's infamous turkey pardon fail.
But have you ever seen slaughter footage from Turkey? Turns out animals are killed as cruelly there as anywhere else.
This video was taken in a slaughterhouse in Turkey, but pointlessly cruel abuse like this can happen to any animal anywhere—from the 8-day-old calf who was beaten and kicked while on her way to slaughter in the U.K., to the conscious chicken plunged into scalding-hot water in an Indian slaughterhouse, to any of the animals enduring the many horrific abuses we've documented in the U.S. at Pilgrim's Pride, Smithfield Foods, Butterball, and AgriProcessors facilities, among others.
If this video upsets you, please run, don't walk, over to GoVeg.com and order a copy of our free "Vegetarian Starter Kit." For those of you who are already vegetarians, keep this video handy and show it to the next person who asks you why you refuse to eat anybody who had a mother.
Written by Jeff Mackey
Our recent undercover investigation, which revealed exactly what happens to horses abandoned by the coldhearted racing industry, has been picked up by a variety of news outlets, but we were particularly glad to see this piece featured on ESPN's Outside the Lines:
Maybe now more sports fans will recognize that horse racing is anything but sporting—especially for the thousands of horses who meet tragic ends every year—and perhaps they'll join us in calling for an end to these abuses.
We all know about the horrific treatment of animals killed for human consumption, but a lot of us dog guardians haven't stopped to think about what we're feeding Fido for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Recently, a University of Florida student investigated Moses Dog Food company (based in Ocala, Florida) to find out what's in your dog's bowl. Check out the video below to see what the student discovered:
The majority of dog and cat food comes from factory farm–raised animals who failed to meet standards for human consumption, falling into one of the "Four D's" categories—dead, dying, diseased, or disabled. Does that sound like something you'd want to feed your dog?
Luckily, there are plenty of humane non-animal alternatives available, such as the legendary V-Dog vegan dog food available on our Web site. We've also got vegan pig ears and treats for you to stock up on—so get shopping!
For the rest of the investigator's photos and contact information for the company so that you can voice your concerns, please visit "The Meat They Eat."
Written by Liz Graffeo
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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